SUBSCRIBE:

Journalist, nine others face up to 13 years in prison

Share

(BIANET/IFEX) - On 21 September 2010, a judge for the Istanbul 9th High Criminal Court postponed a case against 10 defendants until 1 February 2011. The defendants include journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, former politician of the dissolved pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) Aysel Tugluk, and lawyer Mahmut Sakar. Birand is a producer at the Turkish television station Kanal D. They have been charged with "spreading propaganda for the PKK".

The court has decided to wait for the execution of an arrest warrant issued for Sakar, who is the lawyer for Adullah Ocalan, the leader of the militant PKK.

Tugluk had previously been sentenced to one year and six months in prison and was banned from practicing law. However, the Court of Appeals overturned the ruling. He is now being tried with the other defendants.

The 10 defendants are facing prosecution over a joint letter entitled "A letter to the government." The letter was published in "Yeniden Ozgut Gundem" newspaper between March 2003 and February 2004. The charges are furthermore based on news items entitled "Peace Call from Ocalan", "I will defend the South-East" and "Let's kill all joy", which were published in "Ozgur Politika" newspaper; "A message like a threat from Imrali to the summit", published in "Milliyet" newspaper; "Some tragedies might come", published in "Yeni Binyil" magazine; "The whistling continues", published in "Hurriyet" newspaper; and news items published in "Gozcu" newspaper, Akit, Turkiye, the Kanal D Main News Bulletin and the Nasname internet site.

The defendants have been indicted under Article 220/7 of the Turkish Criminal Code on "knowing and willingly aiding and abetting an illegal organization as part of the hierarchical structure of the organization" and Article 314/2 of the Turkish Criminal Code for "membership in an armed organization". If convicted on both counts, the defendants could face up to 13 years in prison.

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

Authorities prosecuted a number of prominent journalists on terrorism-related charges, including the editor in chief and the Ankara bureau chief of the Cumhuriyet daily, who were arrested in connection with the paper’s coverage of alleged weapons shipments to Syria by Turkish intelligence services.

The report is a frank assessment of the recent regime of online censorship and mass surveillance against a backdrop of longstanding, serious abuses of the judicial process and attacks on freedom of expression by Turkish authorities.

The Turkish authorities severely restricted the right to freedom of expression of journalists and writers during and after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, English PEN and PEN International said in their joint report.

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.